11 miles and Changing Plans

So I started off the New Year with an 11 mile run! I know it is technically still 2010 BUT I am counting it early for 2 reasons:

1. It is a year long goal that will go from 12/31/10-12/31/11

2. I plan on having a small hangover tomorrow : )

Also, my half marathon plans are already changing. The Rock N Roll in Nashville is $$$ and the hotels/shuttle are $$$$$$! SO we are now looking at other races. We have a lot of choices:

April 3rd- half marathon in Lexington (Run the Bluegrass) which is like 45 mins from my house

April 30th- Derby; more $$$ hotels

April 30th- Flying Pig in Cincinnati (little travel and hotel cost again)

I also need to make my full marathon choice today : ( I think I am going to do Virginia Beach once I work out the logistics of traveling that far. My brother lives there so I can stay with him. I think the sooner I have a full coming up the better! I was more motivated to not cut my long run short day when I knew it was my first training run.

I miss my Garmin : ( running naked has been fun and less stressful but I have no idea how long it has taken me to run or what my pace has been! For all I know I have been knocking out an 11:00 min pace.

Have fun on your New Years Run!

2011 Plans

Last year I did 2010 miles in 2010 and that kept me motivated so I knew I wanted to do something similar in 2011. When I looked back at my miles I noticed the months I was training I was close to 80 miles a month which is about what it takes to get in 1000 miles for the year. So first and foremost I am going for 1000 miles of running in the year 2011!

Which means I will need to have something to work towards so here is the plan:

Start the new year training for a full marathon (not registered yet); planning on Knoxville in April since it will back up to my Spring Break. (4/3/2011) or Virginia Beach on March 19th which would mean I should have started training a few weeks ago : ( I will be deciding very quickly! As in by midnight tonight!

Then I plan on running the Nashville Half Marathon with my mom and step dad! Mom just did her first 5K and my step dad has not ran a race yet but has lost around 100 lbs in the past couple years : ) (4/30/11)

I am sure I will do something during the summer but nothing is standing out to me yet. There are a blue million 5Ks that I like around here that I have done for the past 2 years so I am sure I will run a couple of those but I do know I will not run them all like I have done the past 2 years.

The fall is still in question. I know I have the Bourbon Chase coming up! (October 2011)

But I want to do a full! I like this:

and this:

and of course we all want to:

All of this should keep me plenty busy in the year 2011! I hope everyone has a great 2011 and has big plans on their calendar : )

2010 Reflection

Started the year training for my first half marathon in Myrtle Beach but it snowed there for the first time in 10 years; people freaked out and the race was cancelled!

We ran 13.1 miles anyway!

Decided to run a "real" half marathon close to home in Lexington. That turned out to be worse than the first one that didn't happen. It was low 40s and pouring down rain the entire time. My arms were numb and throbbing by the time I finished with a time of 2:32:31

Ran a lot of 5Ks all summer and smashed my last year times! Could not break 30 minutes in 2009 but ended 5K season with a PR of 24:28!

Bought a road bike and really enjoyed riding so...

I learned to swim (sorta) and did a Sprint Tri! LOVE running, like biking, HATE swimming!

Trained and ran my first full marathon in Indianapolis in October! LOVED it! It is the best thing I did all year! My time was 4:27:48 and I can not wait to do another one!

Did a half in a local town (Midway) and broke 2 hours by 8 minutes! 1:52:11

Ran my mom's first 5K with her.

What does next year bring? Check back to find out....

Goal Met!

I am super excited to be done with my 2010 miles! I love that it took me all year because it gave me a reason to go downstairs or go outside and work out on the days I was feeling a little lazy. I have goals for next year and I will post them on New Years Day!

When I stepped on the treadmill I knew I wanted to make my last miles count so I decided to run 5 miles and run it hard. I am not sure what my outside PR is for 5 miles but I think it is 44 something. My treadmill PR was 43:11 and today I kicked it up and finished in 42:35. I am always happy with anything around 45 minutes but was thrilled with my time today!

I did get my new Saucony shoes that I put on here on my wish list and I like them. They do feel different. They are a neutral shoe that can be compared to the Nike Free is someways. I do not plan on running anything more than 5-6 miles in them but I have read of people doing full marathons in them. I also received some new running pants that I am returning for 1 pair. They were all too long of course. My parent bought me an awesome Saucony running shirt that I can not wait to wear. AND I will be getting my Garmin for my birthday on January 11th.

I mentioned blogging about Kona but just lack the time to go in detail about it. Basically these are my feelings:

*LOVE watching it because it is so inspiring and totally motivates me to push thru the pain

*Crowie is amazing to look at and listen to : ) He is the reason I started reading about IronMan

*Crissie Wellington would have won it but Mirinda will give her run for her money in 2011

*Macca knows how to mess with your mind and he deserved the win for many reasons

* I would like more "average" people to be highlighted

* And as Tri Daddy Diesel said "they are genetic freaks" 5:35 average pace for 10 miles!!!

Hope everyone is back on track after the gluttony of the holidays! Can't wait to tackle what 2011 brings to the table!!

Christmas

Hope you had as much fun as I did! I even took the day off : )

Now time to get back on track and sweat off the extra calories!

Merry Christmas Eve!

Parker hopes you have a Merry Christmas! I started my holiday indulgence last night but was a good girl and ran for an hour this morning. I have no idea how far since it was "unplugged' due to a dead iPod and being Garmin-less : ) I will clock it later when I drive somewhere.

Keep running while you eat things like this....

and this....

I hate it when...

I can't run for a few days and I get all pumped up for my next run and then it s***s : (. Not sure if it was the flu, the drugs I have been on, the side effects of the codeine (SERIOUS GI issues) or just the lack of serious working out for 3-4 days but it was the pits!!!

I could have ran outside today (which is rare) but I did the treadmill so that I could watch Kona (more about that in my next post); well I think the treadmill was a mistake. Within the first mile I had a horrible pain in my side and stopped running after the first mile. I would not have done that outside!! For some reason I stop and walk or get off the treadmill but outside I rarely stop. I don't know if it is because people are watching or I can just slow down outside.

Well I planned on five miles and I was going to get them so my run went like this:

1 mile; break to fix side cramp

2 miles; bathroom break

1 mile; break because I was just pathetic

3 miles; best 3 of the day!

So I ran more miles than planned but I did not get my speed up one time. I ran a 6.0 the WHOLE time which I NEVER do. My 5 miles usually go like this:

Mile 1: 6.0 warm up

Mile 2: 6.0, 6.5, 6.0, 6.5 (those are quarter miles)

Mile 3: 6.5, 7.0, 6.5, 7.0,

Mile 4: 7.0 the whole time

Mile 5: 7.0 and up it one at every tenth (7.0, 7.1, 7.2 etc... until I finish at 8.0)

Which puts me running 5.1 miles in 43ish minutes!

I know that is not a standard speed work and there is no rest but that is how I do it : ) I like to play games on the treadmill and run until I think I am going to puke. Since I am trapped in my basement and DVR TV only takes you so far I push it while I am down there. To some people that is not fast but to me it is!

I have decided than in 2011 I am going to put the more technical stuff on here. As I looked back on 2010 I was not really good about putting times. I know my first 5 mile run was 58 minutes but I don't know any of the times for any of my training and I think those would help as I work on "speed".

I will talk Kona next time but I would like to leave my speed talk with:

How the F*** do you run a 5:45 mile EVER! much less during an IronMan!

3 week break! WHAT?!?!

Christmas break should start next Monday but lets run down this past week:

Monday: Snow Day and sickness showed up

Tuesday: positive flu test (I didn't work)

Wednesday: sleep 18 hours (I didn't work)

Thursday: snow (ice) day

Friday: snow (ice) day

Which means my Christmas Break started a week early. When I go back to work on January 4th I am not sure I will remember how to do my job since the last time I will have been to work will be December 10th! CRAZY!!

Needless to say I did not work out super hard this week but I did get some walking miles and today I was on the trainer for TWO hours watching trash (MTV:Cuthroat Reunion and Survivor) so I was able to get back on track for my miles. I have 40 miles left and 14 days to do it! BUT we all know the holidays are tough.

Starting the 23rd I have quite a few dinners, trips, breakfasts etc.. to go to so I will be working out a lot every day until then. But I will have the biggest motivator on DVR of all time! Ironman Kona is coming on Sunday @ 4pm on NBC (channel 18 for the local folk). I will watch it at least 6 times and I will cry all six times.

This is turning into a long post but I want to talk Biggest Loser for a minute. I think Ada looked awesome and deserved a prize which means I do agree that there should be a male winner and a female winner. I also think the person with the biggest percentage lost should get the most money. I get the whole "alliance"/"game play" thing but I think there should be a red line every week; you don't loose the weight you go home. But I guess some people watch for the drama. I also wonder what they do to support the people at home. I would love a behind the scenes show because I feel bad for the people who come to finale and have obviously fallen off the wagon. I could go on forever but all in all it was a pretty weak season and I only liked Ada. Next season looks interesting especially with the Bob/Jillian hopefuls trying to get a spot on the show.

What can you get me for Christmas you ask??? Click the follow button people! 8 followers : ( My self esteem is suffering here!

Snow Day

Yesterday I did an Insanity work out that a coworker suggested and it was well.... INSANE! It kicked my butt and my butt is sore to prove it : ( I love a good work out but I wish I had saved it for another day. It is a workout that needs to back up to a day of rest. Usually if I have a snow day I take advantage and get a long run on the treadmill while Parker naps. Well 3 slow miles and I was D-O-N-E! Did I mention my butt is sore?? So my day in terms of working out was minimal but my day with Parker was great! If you want to see what we did all day you can check out my other blog where I write about what is #1 in my life: Parker Scott.

Wish List

Since my current Garmin hit the pavement I need a new one. Granted you could run without a Garmin but there are some days that I really enjoy having my Garmin and it helps a lot with pace work. SO this item knocked a few other "wants" off the list.

I want to try out the Saucony Kinvara. I have tried them on 3 times and ran in them once at a race expo and really like them! They are a lightweight shoe similar to the Nike Free. I do best in shoes with little support. Stability shoes always leave me hurting and I have always worn Sauconys. Pre-running I wore them when I worked out at the gym and I always wore their cushion shoes when I was working standing on my feet. I have been in my current shoes since August so they have 400+ miles on them! I have always worn white shoes so I thought I would change it up with black.

These pants are from Athleta and are $$$. BUT they come in petite! Under Armour and Nike pants are 4 inches too long for me and I get sick of running on my pants and being soaked to my knees because my pants get wet the whole time I run. I looked all summer on clearance racks but my size is never left and I can never find a petite. These are cold gear pants and I am in need of thicker pants. My plan is to wear my regular tights under these and be good to go.

Other items I want:

New hat

A second cold gear shirt

Allied Medal Hanger

So Santa if you are listening ; ) I have been really good and I promise I will run all the time if you bring me everything on my list!

9 miles

This morning I ran 9 miles on the treadmill; it took me like 2 hours because I had to stop and change a diaper and check on Parker a couple of times. That is the farthest I have ever ran on a treadmill! I had a lot today and driving into town, bundling up and waiting on daylight was not an option. So I drug out of bed at 6:30 am and hit the treadmill. That is another first! I am NOT good at getting out of bed early to run but it feels so good to have 10 miles done before 8 am. Too bad I am going to eat every calorie I burned at my high school girls get together this afternoon.

Hope you and your family & friends are enjoying the holidays! My son is brining back the Christmas Spirit to this Scrooge.

Running from the Holidays : )

So the next two weeks are going to be filled with food, food, food. I never make it thru the holidays without gaining weight! Because I love sweets! Starting tomorrow work will be a buffet of sweets, appetizers, donuts and random other holiday goodies. Then I am having friends over Saturday, couple of nights out and then the real holiday meal start! That is a A LOT of calories. I am trying my best to fend them off. You would think I would not make $100 worth of candy in my own kitchen, huh? Nah... I love making peanut butter balls, oreo truffles, fudge, brownies and cookies. The best part about making is them is that I get to eat one or two and then give the rest away.

Speaking of running I watched the Biggest Loser marathon while I was running tonight and cried like a baby. I have watched numerous episodes before but since I have now ran a marathon myself I felt much more connected to the contestants. When Ada said she wanted to sit down at mile 23/24 I was sobbing. That was the same time I had to fight thru one of my biggest moments. Then when the ran across the finish with their family I was sobbing again. Good thing I was in the privacy of my own basement and not in a gym somewhere.

I e-mailed my husband my running wish list and he was a little sticker shocked by the prices. I want new good running pants and I have to hate a petite so they are like $90 bucks. I want new running shoes and unfortunately my Garmin and the black top had an unfortunate meeting so I guess I need a new one : (

103 miles to go! I will make it! Even if I have to sit on the trainer for 3 hours : )

If any short girls out there know of pants that run shorter or who makes petite let me know. I am 5 foot 2 (barely) so I need really short pants. Thanks!